Turbine power plants, such as gas turbines, are used in a variety of useful applications. Aviation, shipping, power generation, and chemical processing have all benefited from turbine power plants of various designs.
Turbine power plants (i.e., combustion turbines) typically have a compressor section for compressing inlet air, a combustion section for combining the compressed inlet air with fuel and oxidizing that fuel, and a turbine section where the energy from the hot gas produced by the oxidation of the fuel is converted into work. Usually, natural gas (mostly methane), kerosene, or synthetic gas (such as carbon monoxide) is fed as fuel to the combustion section, but other fuels could be used. The rotor—defined by a rotor shaft, attached turbine section rotor blades, and attached compressor section rotor blades—mechanically powers the compressor section and, in some cases, a compressor used in a chemical process or an electric generator. The exhaust gas from the turbine section can used to achieve thrust; it also can be a source of heat and energy, or, in some cases, it is discarded.
It is known that materials such as water can also be added when the turbine power plant is operating to augment the power output capability of a turbine power plant above the output achievable with normally humidified or ambient air. Such a procedure is known as wet compression. Wet compression enables power augmentation in turbine power plants by reducing the work required for compression of the inlet air. This thermodynamic benefit is realized within the compressor of a gas turbine through “latent heat intercooling” where water (or some other appropriate liquid) added to the air inducted into the compressor cools that air through evaporation as the air with the added water is being compressed. The added water can be conceptualized as an “evaporative liquid heat sink”.
The wet compression approach thus saves an incremental amount of work (which would have been needed to compress air not containing the added water) and makes the incremental amount of work available to either drive the load attached to the gas turbine (in the case of a single shaft machine) or to increase the compressor speed to provide more mass flow (which can have value in both single shaft and multiple shaft machines).
Various methods and apparatuses have been employed to facilitate the introduction of fluid (i.e., water) to the working fluid of turbine power plants so as to realize the benefits of wet compression. One such known method involves the circumferential introduction or staging of water to the turbine power plant. While effective to a certain degree, the circumferential staging of water in turbine power plants often results in the introduction of different forcing functions into the components of the turbine power plant (depending on how many spray arms are being employed) which could lead to damage of these components such as the blades of the turbine power plant.
With the forgoing problems and concerns in mind, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a radial staging of a liquid injection system configured for reducing the possibility of damage to blades and other components that are integral to a turbine power plant.